Street-sweeping machine



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

M. W. ST. JOHXT AND I. BROWN, OF LEONARDSVILLE, NEW YORK.

STREET-SWEEPING MACHINE.

Specification of ALetters Patent No. 13,830, dated November 20, 1855.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, M. W. ST. JOHN and ISAAC BROWN, -of Leonardsville,in the county of Madison and State of New York, have invented a new andImproved Street-Sweeping Machine; and we do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of t-he same,reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of thisspecification, in which- F igure l, is a longitudinal vertical sectionof our improvement, (w), (x), Fig. 2, showing t-he plane of section.Fig. 2, is a plan or t'op view of ditto. Fig. 3, is a detached view ofone of the clutches by which the working parts are thrown in and out ofgear with the driving wheels.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

The nature of our invention consists,-

lst. In the employment or use of a reciprocating broom constructed andarranged as will be presently shown and described.

.2nd. Our invention consists in the employment or use of an endlessapron forl conveying the dust swept upon it by the broom from underneaththe machine and depositing it in windrows in the street.

3rd. Our invention consists in the 'combination of the endless apron andbroom.

4th. Our invention consists in supporting the back part of the machineby a swivel wheel which is connected by a bar to the back end of thedraft pole for the purpose of allowing the machine to turn readily, aswill be hereafter shown and described.

5th. Our invention consists in the employment or use of gearing soarranged that the working parts of the machine may be readily thrown outof gear with the driving whieels.

To enable others skilled in the art to fully understand and constructour invention, we will proceed to describe it.

A, represents a rectangular framing in which a transverse shaft B, ispermanently secured, said shaft B, being at the front end ofthe framing.On the shaft B, there are placed loosely, two driving wheels C, C, whichhave geared rims D, D, attached to their inner sides.

E, is a shaft which works in bearings at the front part of the framingA. This shaft E, has two pinions F, F, placed loosely upon it, whichpinions gear into the rims D, D. On the shaft E, there are placedloosely two ratchets G, G, which are made to gear with the pinions F, F,or disconnect therefrom when desired by inclined flanch'es a, on theends of a sliding plate H, which. is operated by a lever I, saidflanches fitting in grooves o, in thecollars (o), of the ratchets, seeFigs. 2 and 3. The inner ends of the collars o, of the ratchets haveprojections c), upon them, which fit in recesses in hubs or bosses d,attached permanently to the shaft E.

From the above description it will be seen, that, when the lever I, isso moved that the ianches a, will thro-w the ratchets G, G, in gear withthe pinions F, F, the

driving wheels C, C, will rotate the shaft E, but when the ratchets arethrown out from the pinions F, F, the driving wheels and pinions willrotate without affecting the shaft, E, which will remain stationary. Theratchets G, G, will rotate the shaft E, in one direction only as whenthe machine is moved backward the pinions will slip over t-he teeth ofthe ratchets which are kept toward the pinions by spiral springs (e),placed between the collars (b), of the ratchets and the hubs or bosses(d), see Fig. 3. To the back part of the framing VA, there is attached aswivel wheel J, the

shaft K, of which has a horizontal arm,`

(f), attached to it.

L, is the pole attached to the front end of the framing A. The back partof the pole is attached to an upright shaft M, which has a horizontalarmg attached to it.- To the outer end of the arm (g), and to the outer endof the arm f, a bar N, is attached. By connecting the bar N, with theswivel wheel J, and draft pole as shown the wheel J, will be turnedaccording as the draft pole is turned for the team in turning will ofcourse turn the draft pole and the wheel J will turn simultaneously withit and throw around the back end of the machine in the proper direction.

To each end of the shaft E, there is attached a crank O, to which,pitmen P, P, are connected. The outer ends of the pitmen P, P, areattached to plates (it), (71,), which are connected to the ends of ashaft Q each end of which has a wheel R, upon it. These wheels workbetween guides S, S, attached to the inner sides of the framing A. Theplates (h), (h), are perforated with holes and a bar T, is placedbetween the plates, the ends of the bar fitting in the holes in theplates. The back side of the bar has a projection U, attached to it, inwhich a slot is made and through which slot a set screw y', passes intoan arm (7s), attached to the shaft Q, see Fig. 1.

On the bar T, there are placed slides V, which are secured at properpoints upon the bar T by set screws (Z). The lower ends of the bar T,have sockets (m), attached to them by joints W, represents brooms orbrushes, the handles (o) of which pass through the sockets (m) and aresecured therein by set screws (p) see Fig. l. The upper ends of thesockets have springs u, bearing against them said springs being attachedto the slides V. X, represents an endless apron which works over atransverse platform Y, attached by swinging arms (g), (g), to theframing A, the apron being near the surface of the ground, see Fig. l.The apron X, is driven by a belt or rope (1") which passes around apulley (s) at the end of one of the rollers of the apron around guidepulleys (t) and around one of the hubs or bosses (d) on the shaft E, aflap X', is attached to the outer edge of the platform Y.

As the machine is drawn along the shaft E, will rotate when the lever I,is moved so as to throw the ratch-ets G, G in gear with the pinions F,F, and the endless apron X, is operated by the belt or rope (7^), andthe bar T, and brooms or brushes W, are moved back and forth by thepitmen P, P, the brooms or brushes being elevated during their backwardmovement in consequence of the bar T, being attached to the pitmen acertain distance from their points of attachment to the shaft Q and theelevat-ion of the bar and brooms may be increased or diminished byadjusting the bar T, nearer to or farther from the shaft Q. The broomsor brushes as they move toward the apron X sweep the dirt from thestreet upon it,

and the apron conveys the dirt to one side of the machine and'depositsit in windrows in the street. The jointed sockets and the springs (u)allow each brush to yield or give in case of meeting with obstacles andthe brooms may be set at any required angle by means of the set screw(j).

The above machine is extremely simple in construction not liable to getout of repair and will operate effectually.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is,

l. The reciprocating brooms or brushes 7, attached to a bar T, which isconnected with the pitmen P, P, the above parts being arranged as shownor in an equivalent way.

2. We claim the endless apron X, placed underneath the machine for thepurpose of receiving the dirt from the brooms or brushes W, andconveying it from underneath the machine and depositing it inwindrows inthe street, as described.

3. We claim the combination of the endless apron X and reciprocatingbrooms or brushes W, arranged as herein shown and described.

4. We claim connecting the swivel wheel J, with the back end of thedraft pole L, by a bar N, substantially as shown for the purposespecified.

5. We claim placing the driving wheels C, C, and pinions F, F, looselyon their respective shafts and operating the ratchets G, Gr, by means ofthe flanched sliding plate H substantially as shown for the purpose ofthrowing the working parts of the machine in and out of gear with thedriving wheels.

M. W. ST. JOHN. ISAAC BROWN.

